Questions About Photography On A Photoventures Tour

How do keep my film safe?
If you are using film you should always carry it with you in your cabin baggage. Film placed in the hold of the aircraft is at real risk of fogging. The airport scanners are safe for film to pass through at least five times and our experience is that film can pass through airport scanners up to ten times without damage. However films of 1000ISO or higher can be fogged with multiple passes and if possible a hand search for these films should be sought.

How much film or digital media do I need?
We advise you to take as much film and digital storage as possible. Our tours will offer so much photography that we do not want you to miss out on any opportunity. On past tours clients have taken more than 100 rolls of transparency and in excess of 80Gigabytes of digital storage. It is always advisable to remove your films from the packing to reduce their size. We also advise that you take additional digital storage media such as a specialist hard drive or computer and use a selection of smaller digital cards to download. That way you will not lose a vast number of images if a card corrupts.

How do I get my equipment to the destination?
We always advise that camera equipment should be carried as hand baggage. When flying to the USA we always use an American Carrier as they offer a far better carry on regime than most European carriers. If you cannot carry all of you equipment then it can go in the aircraft hold but we advise that you place it in a specialist flight case such as those made by Pelican products.

Will I need any special equipment?
Special equipment is not necessary for the majority of or tours. Advice is always given about what clothing and equipment you may need on a particular tour. The one exception to this is the Yellowstone Winter tour where you will require special cold weather gear. With many years experience photographing in this area in the winter we can of course offer the very best advice to make the most of this unique experience.

Will I be able to receive photographic advice?
The tour leader will be available to give help and advice during your tour. It is Photoventures policy to encourage individuals to de as independent as possible and explore the photographic opportunities that will be presented to them during the tours. In this way the photographer will gain much more satisfaction from their achievements and every photograph will be their own creation. Photoventures can offer a great deal of guidance throughout the tour but has a policy not to set up groups shots. This does not improve the individual photographer’s ability or allow them to produce personal images. The sense of producing your own images in these situations is far more rewarding than returning home with the same image as everyone else on the tour.

Do the tour leaders take their cameras?
Yes the tour leaders like to enjoy their photography alongside the clients whilst on tour. However the client always comes first and if any assistance is required that will be the priority. The tour leaders take photographs for a number of reasons, firstly to maintain their skill levels and secondly to produce the vast majority of the photographs used in our brochures and advertising. In this way the client can be sure that the photographs used to promote the tour will actually have been taken within the same constraints that were experienced on similar tours and reflect the type of images that can be obtained.